Interviewing SDR Candidates with no Sales Experience

When I started interviewing SDRs at Outreach I got the nickname, “The Oracle” because I was particularly good at identifying SDRs that would be successful even if they had not sold before or came from an unconventional background. While I love the nickname, in reality I don't have any special sixth-sense or gift for identifying diamonds in the rough, the secret is just figuring out how the SDR will react to the most difficult parts of the job. Whether they have a lot of experience or not, the root causes of poor performance or churn often come back to how the SDR will react to the most difficult moments.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself in interviews to consistently identify good SDR candidates with little to no experience:

Have they chosen to trade discomfort for accomplishment in the past?

Success in sales development often comes down to how much discomfort you are comfortable with. SDRs who have justified trading discomfort for success in the past are likely to do so in the future. Willingness to endure personal embarrassment, risk-taking, unusually hard work, physical discipline etc. in order to accomplish something can be a powerful indicator.

Is there more than the paycheck motivating them?

Salespeople who are purely motivated by money can be very successful. But if there are multiple different motivators to stack on top of that, their motivation can be multiple times stronger. This relates to the previous point about comfort with discomfort. If they realize SDR work gets them closer to an exciting goal, it is easier to justify more discomfort in order to accomplish it.

Was their last position more difficult/stressful than this role?

Dig into their most recent previous experience to determine how intense/difficult it was. Transitioning to SDR from an easier job is hard. Actual examples of roles that will be more intense than your SDR role will be different depending on your company, I'll point out a couple of counterintuitive ones that may be true though. College is not a job, but it is often more stressful than many SDR roles so the transition can be easy here. Closing and full-cycle sales roles can be less stressful than SDR roles. Although full-cycle sales is usually more intense than other professions, it may still be more pleasant than SDR work. The difficulty of transitioning to a less pleasant role can affect their longevity and enthusiasm.

Do they fight even when it feels hopeless? 

The most effective strategy I have used for this is to just tell the candidate at the end of the interview, “You did a great job, but I don’t think you are cut out for this role in particular” [awkward silence until they respond]. Do this no matter how well the person actually did in the interview. How they respond to this is a pretty consistent and predictable indicator of how they will react in similar situations in the future.

Does this candidate have a particular background or certain characteristics that have been consistently unsuccessful here?

Over time, you will notice there are certain red flags or prior experiences that hardly ever end up working out. Don’t hire the types of candidates who are never successful unless something has fundamentally changed in your SDR org to make success for this person likely or they have a “superpower” that you believe makes up for it. 

Are they coachable?

I role play three times with them in the interview. They are given the script beforehand and we do three short role plays. I give feedback after each one watch how they react and implement it. Doing this gives you a feel for their phone skills/voice, confidence, and what it's like to coach them.

Would I regret not hiring them?

If yes, offer clearly good candidates the position immediately. Larger companies often have excessive approval processes that decrease their odds of winning the best candidates. You can use this to your advantage if your company is smaller and faster. If you are in a larger company with an unnecessarily long approval process, just move as quickly as you can. In some rare cases the upside of moving quickly on an obviously good candidate may justify the downside of breaking your approval process. Speed matters and the odds of getting a yes decrease the longer you wait to offer.

For obvious reasons I can't publicly post the exact questions I ask SDR candidates in all my interviews, but if part of your role is interviewing SDRs and you would like to see them, just write "Questions please" in the comments and I'll send them over.

#HappyHunting